Outboard Engine Size for a Hunter Duette

jamie-bay said:
Too late I am sure, however I have a Hunter duette with a saildrive tohatsu 6hp 4 stroke and as i have the original prop too i can say with confidence that it is very good.
I sail from Gosprt Cruising club and have managed to enter portsmouth harbour at full ebb and also exit at full flood.
I had two tanks of fuel in july and had to ditch one in february as the engine used barely a tank in the busiest part of the season.
Fairweather marine advised that it was best to add the alternator package at purchase from new and that the exhaust mod was needed to run in the well.

In essence if you have not done it yet then go for it!

jamie
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Tried to to pm you Jamie, rather than resurrect an old thread, but doesn't seem to work.

Did you have to modify the Tohatsu 6hp to fit your Duette's engine well? Looking to replace the Honda 5hp on mine.

Thanks

Paul
 
Similar but different

The duette is an easily driven hull, I would think that 4 or 5 HP would be plenty. When we had the bigger sister from Hunter, the Delta, She came with a 5 hp 2 stroke which was a bit short for that heavier boat in a headwind / sea, but plenty in flatwater However I really regretted my upgrade to an 8 HP when trying to handle the beast. We became much better at sailing on and off a mooring.
 
johnphilip said:
The duette is an easily driven hull, I would think that 4 or 5 HP would be plenty. When we had the bigger sister from Hunter, the Delta, She came with a 5 hp 2 stroke which was a bit short for that heavier boat in a headwind / sea, but plenty in flatwater However I really regretted my upgrade to an 8 HP when trying to handle the beast. We became much better at sailing on and off a mooring.
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Thanks John. 5 or 6hp will be fine, I think. 8hp would be overkill. I'm more concerned to make sure that it fits in the outboard well. Jaime tells me that the Tohatsu 5hp does
 
Take your choice then. Same engine for 4/5/6hp Just rated differently.
I can't imagine you'd need the 6. I've not been above about 1/3rd throttle with a 4hp on 19 ft yachts. Still doing hull speed.
 
engine for hunter duette

I have a Hunter Duette and have used a mercury 6, 4 stroke which has proved to be reliable and man enough when the going gets tough.
 
Spark plugs

Ubergeekian said:
There's also twice the chance of having a fouled one. It's the old question: is it more important to have full power available (use as few cylinders and engines as you can) or to have some power available (use as many cylinders and engines as you can). Hence, for example, single engine fighters and multiple engine bombers.
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Came to mind that the last of the big intercontinental piston engined airliners had 4 engines each with 4 banks of 7 cylinders. So 28 cylinders per engine each cylinder having dual ignition so 56 plugs per engine so 224 spark plugs. They had an engineer who had an osciloscope with switching so that the electric pulse to each plug could be examined in flight. This to identify any plug problems.
Just some more useless info from olewill
 
William_H said:
Came to mind that the last of the big intercontinental piston engined airliners had 4 engines each with 4 banks of 7 cylinders. So 28 cylinders per engine each cylinder having dual ignition so 56 plugs per engine so 224 spark plugs. They had an engineer who had an osciloscope with switching so that the electric pulse to each plug could be examined in flight. This to identify any plug problems.
Just some more useless info from olewill
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Olewill,

I think you'll find all that kit ( apart from the osciloscopes ) on Macgregors ! :)

To the OP,

The Duette is 23', she's in the class of a Hurricane not a Lancaster, and the main reason bombers had more engines was to get the lift to fly, with the powerplants available.

Have one well maintained engine, - do try lifting it too - and in the unlikely event it conks out just sail; if it delays the restaurant booking, tough and we've got mobile phones now.
 
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McGregors

Hi Seajet. Nothing wrong with McGreggors providing you don't own one and are not asked to sail on one as I was a while back.(Ugh) fortunately the 50 HP engine carried it well to windward compared to the sails. (but it was supposed to be a race)
regards olewill
 
Thanks all for your comments.

just bought a new Tohatsu 6hp Saildrive. Fits very well and a great little engine. Wish I'd replaced the old Honda years ago!
 
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